No, thank goodness – at least I don’t think so, and anyway Dallas in late June/early July = vanishingly small chance of rain.
We’ll make it all work. If I were to be completely honest, I’d have to admit that at least part of “I don’t think we can afford this” was “I don’t want to pay this much just to get a sandy taint” in drag.
Oh, that’s right, I forgot you’re near me. Good gawd almighty, ain’t it hot? And, yeah, even gullible ol’ umkay/sez/whatever-believing me kinda saw through it. Don’t worry - the sand will wash out.
I’m glad I could help! I hope your migraine is doing better. Those are absolutely miserable. I’ve had four in my entire lifetime and the excruciating pain of each one still haunts me.
My kids are driving me crazy. My son is apparently on the brink of an ear infection, which isn’t his fault. But when he whines about his ear hurting, it’s hard to make the distinction from when he’s whining just to whine (which he’s only just outgrowing, so my knee jerk reaction is to ignore him), so I got mad at him yesterday and it turns out he was in pain and I’m a shitty parent.
And my daughter woke me three times last night, resulting in 3 hours of sleep for me - again - and I burst into tears this morning because I’m so tired and have to be on call for an HR manager where I’m lucky enough (and this is not sarcastic) to have three different departments interested in me. Last night she came in, Darth Vader again, and whimpered, “Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. Mommy. The cats! The cats! They’re wowing (rolling with w’s) awound. Oh…and the doggies, too.”
And when I had my mini meltdown, she said, “Mommy, you thwowing a tantwum?” Why yes, little one. Yes, I am.
I’ve seen a lot of posts on the board about screeching children & how they should be put down and I’ve always thought that was a nitpicky reaction to an exaggerated problem.
I’ve since revised my opinion.
Recently, the wife & I moved to a new apartment, which is in a building right next to a…oh, let’s say a more family-friendly complex: two sets of apartments, no balconies and a big yard in-between the two buildings. A big yard where kids love to play all day long. Run and play and scream their little fucking heads off. Not yell & laugh & giggle, etc., but literally scream as though they’re being murdered.
Now, since we’re in the building next door AND on the 7th floor of that building, it actually isn’t that loud for me. The tv or stereo at just a comfortable volume drowns it out. However, I can’t imagine how annoying it is for the people on the lower floors of the building or the non-parents living in that complex. So, for me - a mini-rant. For some of those people, probably not so much.
And in the meantime, I can sit and muse about the fact that “Sandy Taint” would make a great character name. I need to create a character around that name and put her in my next screenplay.
You know, sort of ‘friend’ who is more acquaintance now since you kinda stepped back from our friendship in a way that demonstrated that you thought that I wasn’t up to your lofty “standards”…
Posting monthly things on your Facebook page about how patient your new wife is with you and how much she’s teaching you is exceptionally fucking creepy and self-abusive. I’ve seen other people walk down that road before, and I got a wiff of it at your house the other night. What it really means is that she rides your ass about every little goddamned thing* and you’re such a low self-esteem toolbag that you accept it as being something wrong with you and grovel for affection and “patience” with your flaws.
Mark my words. This will not end well.
Sigh. After posting that one I check my FB page again and another one of my former co-workers has been fired for absenteeism.
Here’s the secret to keeping a job, kids…
SHOW UP ON TIME EVERY DAY.
Not only show up on a daily basis…do it on time and able to work. I’ve had to fire several people who showed up so hungover that they puked and passed out on the loading dock.
My community is on water restrictions. I’m lucky, I have a 3 bedroom home and only one person living here, so I am allowed enough water for 4 people. I’m still doing my part to conserve.
There is a guy who has started up a business hauling water to people who pay him to water their trees and plants. This is a good idea. He can fill his tank at the well in Prescott for 20 cents a gallon, haul it down here and sell it for a dollar a gallon.
Except he isn’t buying the water, he is going to a campsite, waiting for the rangers to go on their rounds and stealing water from their well.
This really offends me. Not enough to confront him or his customers (who probably don’t know, I just found out because Tony knows everything). This is the desert, stealing water is a crime higher on the list than stealing mail. IMO, mostly because my mail is all junk and political ads.
I should bookmark this for the next time some ignorant twat tells me that children don’t spend hours screaming while they play.
Sounds like a compwetely justified tantwum, tho.
Miniest of minirants. Notice to general driving public. If you feel it is absolutely necessary to purchase and affix any of those godawful ribbon magnets to your car (oh, you know: “Support Our Troops!” in red-white-and-blue, “Breast Cancer Awareness” in pink), STICK THE FUCKING THINGS ON STRAIGHT. So that the loop is at the top and the ribbon tails make a little upright X. Not sideways, like a school of Jesus fish. Yes, I know that means your favorite clichés’ words aren’t horizontal and I will have to tilt my head to read them. THAT’S HOW RIBBONS ARE.
Spam of the day (not ranting about this, just sharing):
“BlossomCraft”? Really? “BobbyMuellersBoys@aol.com” was already taken, I guess? How about “MenInBlack2012@hotmail.com”? no?
And now, a douchey minirant from somebody who should just shut up and be thankful, but is just currently frustrated:
Back in September, I as offered a p/t time contract job, that would have been basically as many hours as I could fit in over the course of 3-5 months. At the time that was awesome, because I wasn’t dating anybody. It was also getting cold, so I figured if I had to spend time indoors and didn’t have to take care of my yard, I might as well be working. Well, all I was waiting on was for the grant to be approved that would pay for my position.
And that didn’t happen until June! However, it was approved for 1000 hours or 1 year, so now I can basically work as much as I want.
Situation now: I have my 2.5 y/o half the time. My hobby is running. I have a girlfriend. It’s nice out, and so I have to keep up my large yard. And, of course, I want to make money.
Conflicts: Running takes a long time. I can take my son with me, but he gets impatient closing in on an hour. Plus, I don’t take him when it approaches 90. Can’t work when I have him. Can’t see my g/f when I work. She doesn’t run (but she’ll spend over an hour on the elliptical…I’m working on that 
) so we can’t spend time together like that. She and my son are now acquainted, but we’re not quite at the point where she should become a regular fixture in his life. Oh, and she has a 7 y/o who we are waiting even longer for me to meet at all.
So anyway. I just seems like I don’t have enough time to dedicate to any one thing. The only one that doesn’t get slighted is my son, I don’t pawn him off for time to do something else. I thought about seeing if his mom would keep him some nights so I could work, but decided against that.
Know what’s been put on low priority? House keeping. Man, when I wasn’t seeing anybody and not working an extra job, the place was nice. Now I’m lucky if I can even keep dishes washed and laundry done.
Ok, that was lame.
We’ve tried, but Big Dog isn’t eating, and only drinks water when I hold the bowl right under his face and practically beg. I think he’s humoring me. The vet is coming by this evening to give him one last shot. It’s the last kind thing we can do for our demi-horse. Dammit.
It’s not that lame. I’m still partially in denial about this whole having to go to work thing. A part of me is like, “Reaaaaally? Must I?” I think of medical interns and attorneys who work like 100 hours a week and it just blows my mind. And I don’t even have kids to worry about!
Yes. Yes it was. You’re working part time and apparently making a sufficient living off it, you have a kid, a girlfriend and a yard. There aren’t enough hours in the day for everything you want to do.
Oh, the horrors.
Hey, just because work is a fact of life doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.
I wasn’t clear. I work a full time job as well.
So sorry to hear that, Lacunae.
{{{Lacunae Matata}}}
I’m sorry you are losing your friend, but I’m grateful you can give him this final gift.
Thanks y’all. It’s done. Sebastian was surrounded by people who loved him, and went off peacefully. We’ll spend a while answering Lily’s questions about where he went, but I’m confident that we did the right thing.